Rapper Lil Durk, whose real name is Durk Devontay Banks, has been found not guilty of orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot linked to a fatal 2022 shooting. The case, which concluded on Friday, alleged he sought revenge for the 2020 killing of fellow Only the Family rapper King Von by targeting rival artist Quando Rondo, and its resolution closes a legal saga that has run for nearly six years.

Prosecutors alleged that Banks, 33, offered money and musical opportunities to associates who killed Quando Rondo, and that a credit card linked to Banks and his record label funded flights for four men to Los Angeles to hunt him down. Quando Rondo escaped unharmed when they opened fire at a petrol station, but his cousin Saviay'a Robinson was killed. Five other men were charged over the plot, and three of them testified against Banks during the trial, which began in August, though his defence lawyers dismissed them as unreliable. Banks still faces a separate civil lawsuit and a racketeering charge, with a further trial due to start on 5th October.